pursue it to the very extremities of the earth; and thus it is that Scotland has begun her mission amongst the Jews in the Holy Land, while England, on the contrary, has commenced hers in the heart of the city of London. And you, likewise, you can pursue it on our territory, at the gates of this town.

There exists, then, at this very hour a nation, which for forty centuries has been the only one (except the descendants of Ishmael) which has formed one family, and which are the children solely of one common father; the only one which retains its nationality intact in the midst of revolutions, massacres, and emigrations, equally through ages of barbarism and of civilization; the same under Nebuchadnezzar as under Alexander the Great; under Charlemagne as under Bonaparte. The empires around them have faded away as shadows, and the nations have succeeded each other on the page of history, and left nought but their record there; they have perished, and their place knoweth them no more, but the Jews remain, distinct and separate from all others, as in the days of our Saviour, one sole family, ever the same, though mixing continually with all others; rich, though spoiled a thousand times; ever increasing in numbers, and more and more united,

though the tempest which has raged now for eighteen centuries has dispersed them into every land under heaven. And it is this wonderful nation

that we are called upon to evangelise.

I shall now proceed to mention the different reasons that press upon us the necessity of extending to her our labours of love more than to any other people on the face of the earth.

The first motive that ought to influence us is compassion. Compassion for the most ill-used, the most oppressed, the most unhappy of all people.

If one of the greatest calls on missionary exertion is a feeling of deep compassion for the temporal and spiritual sufferings of those who know not the Saviour;-if the certainty of there being no peace, no salvation, no future happiness by any other than by Jesus Christ, ought to lead us to go out to all the nations of the earth, then it is certain that the Jews claim from us a much larger share of these christian feelings than any other nation on the earth, both on account of our long-continued cruelty towards them, aud for the exceeding greatness, as well as the long-continuance of their misfortunes; our spoliation, our outrages; their exile, the carrying away their wives and children, the most dreadful tortures and the

most cruel massacres,-all these form their wretched history in every country in which they have dwelt. There is not one under heaven which has not seen them suffer all this and much more: France, England, Germany, and even Switzerland, but above all Italy and Spain, (to mention only nations that call themselves christian,) every country under heaven has put upon them a yoke of iron, and made their blood flow like water. In vain have they fled from kingdom to kingdom, and traversed the vast universe in search of repose; the sole of their foot has never yet found it. In all their wanderings through this world have these sufferings accompanied them, and continued without ceasing through successive ages with unrelenting fury; their woes reappear as faithfully as the returning seasons, and the storm that bows them to the earth has never ceased for eighteen hundred years. Every morning they have exclaimed, "Would God it were even!" and at even they have said, "Would God it were morning! for the fear of their heart wherewith they did fear, and for the sight of their eyes which they did see." The history of every other people, however tragical, still offers some variety; but that of the Jews, from Titus down to Mahmoud and Mehemet Ali, present one lamentable uniformity of distress. "Their

plagues have been wonderful, and of long continuance," as it was predicted. This portion of their history has often been laid before the public, and Basnage in the last century has once more performed the same task. In perusing it the reader is filled with astonishment, and knows not whether to be more amazed at the persevering cruelty and hatred of the Gentiles, or the patient obstinacy of the Jews.

The first century of the christian era saw eleven hundred thousand of them slain by the sword, their temple burned, their city overthrown, without one stone left on another, and the small remainder of their population carried captive into all nations. In the second century, under Adrian, they rapidly increased, but oppressed by their tyrants, they revolted, and five hundred and eighty thousand were massacred, and Judea became a desert. In the third century they were forbidden to approach Jerusalem, under pain of death. In the fourth, before being sent to Rome, their ears were cut off. In the fifth, driven out of Egypt, they retired into Persia, and there became a prey to the most cruel persecution. In the sixth, worn out by their sufferings, they again revolted, and Palestine saw for the third time a massacre as dreadful as that which under Titus

and under Adrian had nearly exterminated their race. But who could recapitulate the sufferings of this inexterminable people, through the long weary years of the middle ages s? Their life hung only by a thread, and if the historians of this cruel age did not all exactly coincide, one would be inclined to consider the details of these atrocious events as devilish inventions. Popes, councils, bishops, kings, and their people, seemed equally let loose against them. More than once they fell in a general massacre, and thousands were slaughtered throughout all Europe. Death was to them better than life, for often did they throw themselves in crowds into the rivers, and often did they barricade themselves in their own houses, and kill each other, to escape from the hands of their more cruel enemies. Every year, during Easter week, at Bézières, the bishops themselves excited the people to go out against the Jews, to punish, as they said, the murderers of Jesus Christ.

In every country they were obliged to wear upon their persons some mark of infamy, a leathern belt, or a yellow hat, to expose them to the cowardly brutality of the lower orders. In many places they were even obliged to carry a clog, as some animals do, which they dragged along at every step.